Lottery ticket with extended play

ABSTRACT

A lottery ticket defines a lottery game printed on a substrate which includes a set of game rules, a series of game elements defined by game symbols covered by scratch-off to expose to the player whether the game data of that game element is a winning game with a points value to be awarded. The game elements and the game rules provide a total points value for example by adding the individual values. A chart is printed in the substrate defining a series of points values each associated with a respective prize value such that the game provides a prize value which is determined by comparing with the chart the total points value.

This invention relates to a lottery ticket with extended play.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is primarily concerned with lottery tickets where game data printed on the ticket is exposed to reveal whether the player is a winner or a loser. Such tickets are generally instant win tickets where the ticket is predetermined by the printer with the winning or losing condition and the prize involved. Such tickets are easily managed by the lottery authority since there is a predetermined number and amount of prizes and thus a predetermined total payout.

Many traditional lottery tickets are of limited play duration in that there is commonly a single game consisting of a few sets of symbols to be used in the game. Such games commonly are won by comparing exposed symbols with required symbols so that a sufficient number of such required symbols when exposed provides a winning set.

One challenge which has become more taxing is that of maintaining the interest of the player sufficient to give a level of gambling pleasure which will encourage the player to play again with another ticket.

The typical lottery ticket with only a few sets of symbols gives only a short duration game, in many cases little more than merely exposing a winning or losing set of symbols in one scratching action.

Attempts have been made therefore to increase the size of lottery ticket play areas by simply increasing the size of the ticket and by providing complex ticket constructions using folded or two layer substrates. Examples are shown in the following patents and patent applications of the present assignee:

U.S. Pat. No. 5,193,815 issued Mar. 8, 1993 relating to a Bingo game;

U.S. Pat. No. 6,234,477 issued May 22, 2001 relating to a ticket formed from two sheets to define a pouch;

U.S. Pat. No. 6,347,794 issued Feb. 19, 2002 relating to a combination break-open and scratch-off ticket;

Canadian Patent 2,449,570 issued Jul. 6, 2004 relating to a ticket formed from overlying sheets in the form of a booklet;

Canadian Patent 2,421,241 issued Jan. 4, 2004 relating to a ticket formed from overlying sheets in the form of a pouch.

The disclosures of the above documents can be reviewed for further details or are incorporated herein by reference.

Other attempts have been made to provide more complex game structures and play actions to extend the playing time of the player before the predetermined result of the ticket is revealed.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,158,293 (Mullins) issued Oct. 27, 1992 provides one early example where there is provided a first instant win game and a second bonus jackpot type drawing. This jackpot type game increases the complexity of management of the game and takes the ticket away from the simple predetermined instant win ticket with which the present invention is concerned.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,949,042 (Dietz) issued Sep. 17, 1999 provides another early example where there is simply provided a series of games on a single ticket.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,588,747 (Seelig) issued Jul. 8, 2003 provides one example of a ticket where there are a series of games and where a second or succeeding game provides an opportunity for the player to multiply the award or prize by selecting from a number of game areas. In another alternative the second game may be reliant on some outside event. In both of these cases the simple predetermined nature of the ticket is lost.

US Patent Application 2003/0184012 (Green) published Oct. 2, 2003 provides one example of an instant win ticket where the player has the impression of gaming in which a prize to be one on a second or subsequent game is based on whether a previous game was won, leading to a increased “wager” to be applied to the subsequent game. This application has been abandoned.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,004,506 (Downes) issued Feb. 28, 2006 provides another example where a series of games are arranged in a row and each game in turn is played by determining whether a particular target symbol appears in the row. However there is no interconnection between the prizes which are merely identified at the end of each game row.

Canadian Patent 2,158,293 (Scrymgeour) published Mar. 4, 2005 of the present Assignees provides an example where the total prize to be won is determined by an interaction between the games or in other words a cumulative effect which results from all of the games being played. In this example the total or final prize is modified from a simple sum of the individual prizes by multiplying the prize value by the number of games won.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is one object of the invention to provide an instant win lottery ticket where the result is predetermined in which the interest of the player is maintained through the playing action.

According to one aspect of the invention there is provided a lottery ticket comprising:

A substrate;

a lottery game printed on the substrate, the game including:

a set of game rules;

a series of game elements printed on the substrate;

each game element comprising game data which is covered by a removable material so that the material can be removed by the player to expose to the player whether the game data of that game element constitutes a winning game element or a losing game element depending on the game rules;

each game element having associated with the game element on the substrate a points value to be awarded for the game element if the game element is a winning game element;

the game elements and the game rules being arranged such that when the player has exposed all of the game elements, a total points value is determined for all of the game elements combined;

and a chart defining a series of points values each associated with a respective prize value of a series of prize values such that the game provides a prize value which is determined by comparing with the chart the total points value determined for all of the game combined.

The term lottery ticket as used herein is not intended to be limited to tickets or substrates which have as their sole function the playing of a lottery game and the game may be ancillary to some other function of the substrate, such as a promotional coupon. The substrate itself also may have some other function such as a wrapping or packaging material where the game is printed on the substrate for playing after the substrate has completed its first use. The prizes may be other than monetary prizes. The game may be simply for entertainment value.

The term “points” is used to define any numerical value different from a monetary prize value where the numerical values or points of the series of games can be summed together or otherwise combined to generate for the ticket a total points value or total numerical value which is then compared to the chart.

The term “series” used herein may comprise any number of game elements or of point values including only two but it will be appreciated that preferred arrangements of the lottery ticket will include many more game elements up to 50 or more and many more point values up to 10 or more.

Preferably the substrate carries only one game with all of the game elements thereon relating to that game. This allows a larger number of game elements to appear on a single ticket substrate. However more than one game may be used in some cases with game elements and points chart which are independent for the different games.

Preferably the total points value combined is obtained by simply adding together the points for the game elements. However other more complicated calculations may be used including for example a multiplication of the points value obtained by simple addition by further factors such as the number of winning game elements.

Preferably the removable material is a scratch-off coating applied over the game data, as is common with tickets of this generally type. However other covering techniques may be used including the known break open windows and other techniques yet to be developed or widely used.

Preferably the substrate is defined by a single sheet. However other more complex ticket structures may be used including folded sheets and connected sheets.

Preferably there is provided on the substrate a total points box covered by removable material which records the total points value of the game elements for a check.

Preferably the chart includes increasing values of prizes. However the chart values may decrease in certain zones or become zero in certain zones so that the player may lose all at a certain points total to simulate a “bust” condition.

Preferably each game element has a points value thereof printed immediately alongside and covered by removable material

In order to increase the number of games, the game elements may be arranged on the substrate in two rows of game elements. However a single row of a smaller number of game elements may be used on smaller tickets.

Preferably the game elements comprise game data in the form of game symbols where a winning game element is defined by a game element in which the game symbols when exposed define a predetermined pattern of predetermined symbols.

Preferably there is provided on the substrate a printed chart of the predetermined symbols, the predetermined patterns and the points values awarded for the predetermined patterns.

However other game type structures may be used as are well known to a person skilled in this art.

The game described herein is based on the concept of having multiple plays within the game which can be a number of the order of 50. The game format can be a variety of different play styles well known to one skilled in this art and in one example this is the simple symbol match style of game. For example there are three symbols in each game element or play and if the same three symbols are found in the same row then the player earns the points shown in a box immediately adjacent the symbols. The symbols are of course covered by the scratch-off material before being exposed by the player. The points may or may not be covered.

Unlike traditional tickets where the player knows after each separate game element what the winnings are for that game element, in the present arrangement the winnings are accumulated as points and only at the end the actual prize amount if any is revealed from the points chart.

In most cases there is provided a total points box which gives the actual total of points accumulated as a check of the mathematics of the player, if the player or the retailer wants to verify the total accumulated points. This area which will of course be covered prior to play also contains the validation number well known in such tickets which is used by the verification system at the retailer or at a redemption location for redeeming the prizes. The validation number can contain multiple bounce and layout to maximize security, where the term of art “Bounce” relates to the placement of a single set of data, such as total points for the game, over multiple positions within the game area. The objective is to locate this data in a variety of locations at random in order to prevent a retailer or other individual with access to the prior to sale from micro-scratching for the points total and trying to determine winning status.

The arrangement of the present invention therefore allows a ticket to contain a large number of games and to maintain the player interest and gambling effect through to the end of the game when all game elements are played and the final prize revealed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

One embodiment of the invention will now be described in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a ticket according to the present invention including a series of game elements, a chart of winning game symbols, a chart of points totals and the prizes associated therewith and a points total box.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the figure is shown a lottery ticket printed on a substrate 10 and including a series of game elements 11 each associated with a points value 12. A total points box 13 is provided which contains a total points number 14 and a validation number 15. The game elements and the total points box are covered before playing with a scratch-off layer 16.

The chart 17 and the chart 18 are printed on the ticket, either on the front or back of the ticket, as a part of the game rules.

An example of the charts 17 and 18 are set out as follows: Match 3 Symbol Value Point Chart 3 Diamonds 40 500 Points $100,000 3 Cars 30 450 Points $5,000 3 Horseshoes 20 400 Points $1,000 3 Stars 10 350 Points $500 3 Crowns 5 300 Points $100 3 Hearts 4 250 Points $25 3 Cherries 3 200 Points $10 3 Oranges 2 150 Points $5

These show the different sets of winning combinations of the individual game elements and the points chart.

The points chart shown above increases in a generally linear manner in prize value in relation to points value and starts from a minimum value. However it will be appreciated that many different arrangements of the points chart can be used to maintain player interest. Thus there may be total points values or more likely ranges of values where the prize is reduced to zero to give the possibility that a high points value does not necessarily lead to a high prize value. Thus high prizes may be awarded at low points values to maintain the possibility that a huge prize can be won even on the later games in the series when the earlier games have provided very few points. It will be appreciated that the final result and the prize awarded is fully under the control of the computer system and programming which sets up the game results so that the final points total and the points awarded can be set up n an manner which provides an effective game action, thus further maintaining the gambling effect till the completion of all of the game elements and the final revelation of the total points value.

An example of a series of game elements is set out as follows: PLAY SYMBOL 1 SYMBOL 2 SYMBOL 3 POINTS 1 Heart Crown Orange 0 2 Diamond Diamond Diamond 40 3 Car Car Star 0 4 Horseshoe Diamond Star 0 5 Crown Crown Crown 5

Since various modifications can be made in my invention as herein above described, and many apparently widely different embodiments of same made within the spirit and scope of the claims without department from such spirit and scope, it is intended that all matter contained in the accompanying specification shall be interpreted as illustrative only and not in a limiting sense. 

1. A lottery ticket comprising: a substrate; a lottery game printed on the substrate, the game including: a set of game rules; a series of game elements printed on the substrate; each game element comprising game data which is covered by a removable material so that the material can be removed by the player to expose to the player whether the game data of that game element constitutes a winning game element or a losing game element depending on the game rules; each game element having associated with the game element on the substrate a points value to be awarded for the game element if the game element is a winning game element; the game elements and the game rules being arranged such that when the player has exposed all of the game elements, a total points value is determined for all of the game elements combined; and a chart defining a series of points values each associated with a respective prize value of a series of prize values such that the game provides a prize value which is determined by comparing with the chart the total points value determined for all of the game combined.
 2. The lottery ticket according to claim 1 wherein the substrate carries only one game with all of the game elements thereon relating to that game.
 3. The lottery ticket according to claim 1 wherein the total points value combined is obtained by simply adding together the points for the game elements.
 4. The lottery ticket according to claim 1 wherein the removable material is a scratch-off coating applied over the game data.
 5. The lottery ticket according to claim 1 wherein the removable material is a break-open window over the game data.
 6. The lottery ticket according to claim 1 wherein the substrate is defined by a single sheet.
 7. The lottery ticket according to claim 1 wherein the substrate is defined by more than one sheet.
 8. The lottery ticket according to claim 1 wherein there is provided on the substrate a total points box covered by removable material which records the total points value of the game elements for a check.
 9. The lottery ticket according to claim 1 wherein chart includes increasing values of prizes.
 10. The lottery ticket according to claim 1 wherein each game element has a points value thereof printed immediately alongside and covered by removable material
 11. The lottery ticket according to claim 1 wherein the game elements are arranged on the substrate in two or more rows of game elements.
 12. The lottery ticket according to claim 1 wherein the game elements comprise game data in the form of game symbols where a winning game element is defined by a game element in which the game symbols when exposed define a predetermined pattern of predetermined symbols.
 13. The lottery ticket according to claim 12 wherein there is provided on the substrate a printed chart of the predetermined symbols, the predetermined patterns and the points values awarded for the predetermined patterns. 